Step 3 was to realize there was more than depression
Which brings us to my oldest daughter
My daughter was from a month old obviousley a very bright little girl she was crawling and walking very early and even reading before kindergarten (without any extra tutoring) she really taught herself by watching/listening to me read to her. If only all kids could do that.
Until my son (second child) got into kindergarten and wasnt even coming close to keeping up with the records his sister had set before him I didnt realize just how smart she really was.
So unfortunaltey I just classified my son as average and didnt do anything extra to help him excel. I knew there was a definete difference between the two and were he didnt have any signs of depression I thought he was spared and would be fine. (mistake)
What are the signs I saw of depression:
One week a month she would do this sad to the point of crying about anything for two days then it was always followed by uncontrolable anger for about 24 hours. We always keep her home from school during the last day of the sad and the day of angry for everyones best interest.
My husbands cycle was every six months he started in on the same routine except he is much better at controlling the anger but for everyones saftey he would go hide in his room for the day. Luckily most the bosses he has had recently have been very understanding enabling for him to keep his job for longer and longer periods
Other clues: super intelligence, mood swings, and absent mindedness which we now have learned is the ADD.
Hello, I am a mother of four children.
Three of which have been diagnosed with varying levels of ADD, ADD+depression, and now Anxiety, mainly becasue I recognized the symptoms early.
I am very aware after dealing with my husbands depression of signs and syptoms that correlate in my children.
I have almost had to laugh/scream at the schools (we have dealt with two different districts) they refused to accept my diagnosis without all kinds of testing and hoops to jump thru. They always end up saying gee how did you know.
Well first I am there mother and second I have dealt with it for several years with other family members.
I am not a herbal pushing freak but I am highly against giving drugs to children untill ALL other options have been looked into.
I started this forumn as kind of a journal in the hopes that some of the things I am experiencing and finding that work may help other parents accept, and help there children too.
Feel free to add your ideas, suggestions, and things that have correlated or worked for you.
Maybe we can all get thru this together!
Tamiam
Tamiam38423.5752314815If your new to the ADD/ADHD or depression ordeal: First let me say parents PLEASE do not blame yourselves, or worse deny your childs problem.
My husband suffered needlessly as a child everything from wooden spoons to special education because his parents thought it was all in his head and/or he was stubborn.
I barely muttled thu school and was always labeled as a day dreamer. It has actually only been in the past several months as my son was diagnosed with ADD I came to admit for myself that I have ADD.
Because my husband and oldest daughter suffer from both depression and ADD I had always thought since I didnt have the depression syptoms I couldnt have ADD.
Let me just close this post by saying my favorite quote is by our first phsycologist who helped us to realize that people with depression are not stupid or slow "they are sooooo smart they have five or more things going on at once, and thier brains are just confused which thought or action to process first" he also gave us a list of famous people who were or have been diagnosed with depression it included Motzart, Bach, Bethoven, Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and many many more I cant remember right now (because I have ten different thoughts I want to write going thru my head) LOL
Please excuse the spelling!
Tamiam
My first experiences with Depression and ADD (or so I thought) were when I married my husband he is a very hard working guy, and always sweet with me and the children.
First clue was after five-six months of being married he stopped caring about going to work and almost seemed to me as though he was trying to get himself fired. Well I chalked it up to he hated his job (everyone has sometime hated ther job) so I encouraged him to just quit and find another (first mistake).
Well to make a long story short as possible he got fired before he could quit anyway. It took three months of sitting around moping because they had rejected him (remember: he had quit working so of course they rejected him) before he was willing to go get a job. The weird part was he all the sudden after three months of moping jumped up one morning and was super determined to get a job. Well he did that day! He was super excited and things got back to normal for about six months. I just chalked it up to either midlife crisis or the newness of being married and having a new baby.
I thought it was all over. I was WRONG!
This patterned reoccured and continued thru several years (and several children), before I could convince my husband to go for counseling.
He refused for a long time because It was all in his head and he was just slow he had been told that since childhood by his parents who didnt believe in or wouldnt accept any such thing as mental problems.
Finally we met with a phycologist who was wonderful and right away was able to tell us yes there was a problem but most importantly it is fixable and it was not all in my husbands head or lazyness.
Of course he also told us there is no miracle cure or pill, it was going to take acceptance and work.
It took several months for my husband to be able to admit to himself that what the Dr. had said was correct. Until he could admit to himself and accept that there was a problem there was nothing the DR. or myself could do to help!
That was step #1
Tamiam
Tamiam38423.5765972222Step 2 for us (after admitting a problem)was experimenting with medications!
Oh boy is that opening a can of worms
We tried Prozac first and it was wonderful for oh about a month till it quit working, partially due to the fact my husband isnt the best at remembering his pills and he got angry if I "nagged" him about it.
So the doc put my husband on Prozac weekly's which would work great for about half a week. The doctor wanted to up the dosage but due to the scary side effects that can happen (suicide, violence) if you forget to take the pills on time. We all agreed to try another route.
So in the following year we tried effexor, and Paxil, and two or three others. They all had there own side effects and worked for about a week then he would get used to them.
So what do you do/use if they only work for a week and you dont want to up the dosage till you find one that stays. That was our question. SO for another year we just tried to deal with it and skip the drugs.
Finally one day I decided to do some reaserch online, and came across a book called "Potatoes not Prozac" cant recall who its by but will try and look it up and get it in here soon.
I was open to any alternatives so I started reading it.
I dont really have the time or room to give you a proper introduction to it in a board but basically it introduces the idea that depression and other neurological disorders as well as addictions are all based on a sugar sensativity. Well to make this extremely long story as short as possible we started following the steps in the book.
It made at least for myself and children (even though we were doing it for daddy) a huge amount of difference. I had been fighting with a type of hormonal sleeping disorder (almost nacoleptic) for about a year, and by changing my diet and eating patterns to the layout of the book I was able to completely stop falling asleep against my will. I had had numerous test by doctors and they couldnt pinpoint any thing that was causing me to fall asleep and so they just chalked it up to hormones. I mean I could fall asleep walking or standing it got to be quite a pain (literally).
I have had a much harder time controlling my husband eating habits while at work so it has not been as big a success for him but we have seen changes and patterns in his depression depending on what he eats.
I would like to suggest if you havent read the book please do even if you dont think you have a problem you may be surprised.
That was step 2
Tamiam
I have no doubt my husband is he was never sat really. His mother never could control him as a kid. It's his way or no way. If you said don't to it he did it anyway. Still that way. Work is is first prioritie.